Finally!

I am the WORST person in the world to keep a secret.  I try but it is torturous! So I FINALLY can share the secret I have been sitting on since late this summer!

I WON A PATTERSON GRANT FOR MY SCHOOL LIBRARY!

For those of you who don't know about this, author James Patterson has teamed up with Scholastic Books to promote school libraries. Here is a clip from the "official" press release wording:

There were 467 awards given and my school received one of them.

I've known for MONTHS but haven't been able to share until they issued the ok yesterday.  And, unfortunately, this is also part of the reason why I have not been blogging much.  I have been working on my grant.

My grant focuses on not only getting books into the hands of every child in my school but also getting them to interact, across grade levels, to discuss the book they read.  We are having a schoolwide literature circle in March.

So, my first task was to ask the kids what they liked to read and where their interest lie and what they wanted to read about.  I did this via a GoogleDocs survey for older kids and a good old fashioned interest survey for the younger ones.

Next, I had to gather the reading levels of every child in the school.  This was accomplished with some help from the STAT teacher because all of this is being done IN SECRET because the teachers don't know about the grant yet.

I have all the data so now I just need to work on inputting and compiling it, making the groups and getting the texts order.  February is going to be our reading month and March our celebration day.

I am tired already but also really excited.  This is going to be really awesome or go really badly.  But either way, every kid in my school gets a new book to keep and that is NEVER a bad thing.

Catching Up!

I know that I have been an absent blogger of late so I am going to take a few minutes to catch you up with the goings on in libraryland.

American Education Week wrapped up.  Lots of visitors to our school and to my library!  I had a large display in the hallway showcasing what the library has been doing and the resources available from BCPS.  I saw families taking a peek at my Book Character Pumpkin Display and reading the tweets and emails from authors.

I also launched two new ways for kids to interact with me and each other.  The first is a display called, "Where In the U.S.A is Mrs. Bixby?"  As you can see, I placed a large map in the hallway and students ask yes/no questions in order to try to "find" me.  When I am found, I make a short video for the morning announcements, using MovieMaker, that gives some history, main attractions and such for the state I was in.  I want to start mystery SKYPE but I first wanted to gauge the interest and questioning of my students.  So the interest is there and Mystery Skype will hopefully be happening in the Spring.

The second interaction was "Caption This" where a large drawing hangs in the library and students write a caption for it.  (I know - my title is beyond clever!) Take a peek at November's contest.

My students took the SpeakUp survey and we participated in Hour of Code.  I have a bunch of coding junkies now!  Just in time for indoor recess as the weather turns colder after the holidays.  The exciting thing is brothers and sisters who went home and talked to families and siblings so when I introduced the coding in class they were saying, "I know that.  My brother told me about this" or "My sister showed me this."  LOVE IT!  The students also went home and coded on their own and stop back by the library to share what them made after clicking on Khan Academy tutorials. 

We also received our racetrack from HotWheels - fun!  I am loving the conversations occurring during Makerspace time.  Watching them work together to process how to create a loop and have a car travel fully through it with no pushing on their part is priceless.  I need to videotape the awesome STEM occurring but I always forget because I am so wrapped up in it.

And...stay tuned because tomorrow I can FINALLY reveal my secret that I couldn't tell before!

It's American Education Week!

Facebook has this really neat feature that lets you "see" your memories from previous years.  This is what popped up for me today and I think it bears repeating.

Sandy Fletcher Bixby

November 17, 2013 · 

Tomorrow begins the start of American Education Week. Please don't tell your children you are coming and then not show up. It crushes their little hearts and makes for very uncomfortable/awkward moments as the teacher helps them work through their disappointment while others (including other parents) look on. Better to say you aren't coming and surprise them.

Please take a few minutes to look around and see all the wonderful things being accomplished in your child's classroom. But don't compare your child to another. Life is not a competition and we all have unique strengths and weaknesses.

Speaking of looking around, see how much your child's teacher goes above and beyond. Those bulletin boards, book displays, locker and desk tags don't just magically appear by little school elves. smile emoticon

Please remember this is not about you and your friends. Put away the cell. Don't talk to your neighbor. In short, if you wouldn't want your child to do it while learning is happening, you shouldn't be doing it either.

Remember, this is a day in a life. One tiny glimpse into life in a classroom. You wouldn't want to be judged for your job on just a short moment. Be fair in judging the teacher. They like to hear positive feedback too!

And above all, remember to smile. Your little angel is sneaking peeks at you (even if they were told not to) and they want to make you proud!

I hope your classrooms and libraries are full of families that see YOUR worth and the importance of what YOU do each and every day when no one else is watching or seems to care about your little corner of the school.  Because YOU make a difference.  YOU are growing a reader, a critical thinker, a synthesizer of knowledge and a citizen of the world...and that's a REALLY BIG DEAL!

Love for the Little People

On the 28th I wrote a long post about feeling like one of the rotting pumpkins in the library.  You never saw it (thankfully) but it was cathartic and it made me shift my thinking.

Last Friday, our district had a 1/2 day professional development day so teachers could work on report cards.  I always use that time to accomplish tasks I can only do at school.  Things like cleaning my office and changing displays and bulletin boards. 

On this particular day, I decided to set aside an hour to work on weeding my Everybody section.  You see, with all the unDeweying that has been going on in the last year, the Everybody section has been neglected.  (And again, in the interest of complete honesty, I don't know if I have ever done a conscious weeding of that section.  There goes my name back up near the top of the bad librarian list!)

I had 2 goals in mind while weeding.  1) Take a look at the condition of my books.  2) Do I have diversity in my collection or is my Everybody section just a mumbo jumbo of "fun" books for little people?  This was a big topic of discussion at my recent district wide professional development.  I need to make sure I have books in my collection that kids can "see" themselves in. 

Okay folks.  Lesson learned and ready to be passed on.  Ready.  Get a pencil. (I'll wait!)  Here it comes:

WEED YOUR EVERYBODY SECTION!  DO NOT WAIT!  DO IT NOW!

I am only through EG and here's what I have discovered so far:

1) My collection is a lot more diverse than I realized.  There are some wonderful hidden gems on them there shelves.  Note the use of the word hidden.  The shelves are so crowded right now that students just keep reaching for the books on the ends of the top shelves so the same old same old books are going out the door.

2) I have a lot of yucky books that I did not even know were yucky.  They look nice from the outside.  They get checked out a lot.  But open them up and they have scribble marks on the front pages and wrinkled pages from being shoved in bookbags/desks and ripped pages that are taped back together and broken internal spines.  My students deserve better books than that. They don't have to ready yucky books when we have plenty of lovely books just awaiting someone to read them.  Plus, how embarrassing to have them take that book home?  YIKES.   

In my defense, I do weed books as I shelve/check in.  But time is tight and I don't have the opportunity to open them all up and take a peek.  At least when I am finished this round, I will have a head start on making my collection stay better maintained. 

Also in my defense, I have a book hospital for broken and unloved (or too greatly loved) books.  So some of these titles should have definitely fallen into that basket via student input.

3) I had multiple copies of books.  I don't need 3 copies of the same book.  I can use that real estate for another book that a different child may love.

So now I have another item on my to-do list.  The goal is to use at least one planning a week to get the Everybody section in order so my collection will be ready for uploading when district ordering time arrives.

Let's Talk Pumpkins!

My library's 2nd Book Character Pumpkin Contest is now complete and it was AMAZING!  I love seeing the creativity of the families at my school and I am always glad that I made the decision to not be a judge.  You can see all of the entries here.

Last year I tweeted photos of a Diary of A Wimpy Kid pumpkin and Jeff Kinney sent us a message. I also got some wonderful emails from the author of the Stella Batts series,Courtney Sheinmel, who sent a special package of bookmarks and Stella Batts items to the designer of the pumpkin.  I thought that was cooler than cool.  So this year I made it a mission to tweet as many pictures as possible (if I could find and author or illustrator's Twitter address to match the pumpkin created) or to email the author or illustrator directly with a photo of the pumpkin.  

I was so pleased to be able to share tweets and emails with students from the authors and illustrators of the following books/series:

Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (tweet)
"If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" by Laura Numeroff (tweet)
Owly series by Andy Runyon (tweet)
"Ballerina Swan" by Allegra Kent (email from illustrator Emily Arnold McCully)
Melonhead series by Katy Kelly (2 emails from author - 1 for me and 1 for student)
"Where's My Mummy?" by Carolyn Crimi (email from author)

These interactions brought alot of joy to these students.  It helped them to feel like they made a connection to a REAL author and illustrator.  I printed the tweets and emails out and sent them home with the students so they could share them with their families.

Things I learned from doing this:
- Some authors and illustrators are difficult to locate on the web.  Their online presence seems well hidden.  That's a shame.
-Most authors and illustrators are gracious enough to reply in some fashion but, just in case they don't, I did not tell any students that I was reaching out.  I only told them when I had a response.

I'm sick and tired of pumpkins and ready to have my library space back to "normal" ...until next year. :-)

OH, and least I forget, a special shout out to the wonderful Mrs. Larrison who for the 2nd year in a row let me keep her staff entry in the contest.  Her creations are beautiful to behold and certainly make the library look fabulous.  Thanks Sherry!

Share the Love

2 days ago, I spoke with a parent, via phone, about our library pumpkin contest (more on that this weekend!).  Before she hung up, she said, "My husband and I just want you to know that you are the reason our son likes to read.  He always comes home excited about books you have talked about or read."  It made me feel AWESOME, AMAZING, SPECTACULAR!  And, on a day when I was a bit stressed out in libraryland, it was perfectly timed.  Had she not had a question about the pumpkin contest, I probably would have never heard such a lovely thing.  We all need those attaboys and attagirls once in a while.

Yesterday one of the resource teachers in the Office of Digital Learning (ODL) sent out an email about the Letters About Literature Contest.  I flagged it to look at later and determine how to get my students involved in some way.

Last night I finally had a minute to read the whole email.  Buried within the text was this bullet:
·         Christine Sarbanes Award Nomination information. The award is open to those whose students participate in LAL. Educators cannot self-nominate, but a principal or a colleague can do so: http://bit.ly/1M6Sp7u

I've been privileged this past year to attend more professional conferences than ever - both physically and virtually.  As I read about the presenters, I am always impressed by their list of credentials and awards.  They are amazing individuals.

Today I am heading off to one of my favorite places, Professional Development, with some of my favorite people, fellow librarians in BCPS, and I know that sitting next to me in one of those meetings is some one just as amazing and awesome.  I know that sitting in my faculty room back at school is someone just as amazing an awesome.  The only difference is that somebody somewhere took the time to nominate them for that award, accolade, acknowledgement. That's a big deal!

 It takes time and effort to think highly enough of someone's abilities to want to share their wonderfulness with others.  We are all busy and we all have very full plates.  We all have the same 24 hours in a day that we have to balance with family, work and self.  But what if we took just a few minutes and sent an email, dropped a note or nominated a colleague for an honor?  How incredible would they feel to be acknowledged - even if they don't win?  How incredible would YOU feel knowing you made someone's day?

Share the love!

MASL

Friday I was delighted to be able to attend my first MASL (Maryland Association of School Librarians) Conference where I was able to present about the un-deweying pilot that started this blog.

One of the things I loved best about this conference was that the Morning Keynote Speaker, Andy Plemmons, and the Afternoon keynote Speaker, Matthew Winner, were both practicing school library media specialists.  They were talking the talk and walking the walk.  Their presentations weren't full of , "When I was in the library..." but "In my library.." and I think that is so valuable.  It made them relatable and their ideas and insights and thoughts practical and applicable.  That is always significant to me because there is nothing worse than walking away from a presentation and thinking that i took nothing away because it wasn't realistic in a day to day teaching sense.

 My first session of the day was Reaching Diverse Readers Through Diverse Reading Programs with Jennifer Siderius from Frederick Co., MD.  She had some awesome ideas for ways to engage readers.  I was particularly impressed with how she worked with the classroom teachers to make sure that the mystery book bags were specific to the reading levels within a class.  WOW!

The next session was the one Kelly and I presented at and we had a pretty full room.  There were lots of questions and feedback.  I have to admit it was a bit daunting to see Andy Plemmons turn up to hear our session. 

After a delicious lunch (sidenote - be prepared to gain some pounds if you attend this conference as there is food EVERYWHERE), the next session I went to was Best Book Sites (so far).  I have a HUGE list of sites to visit this weekend.  I am learning to pace myself and put some things on the back burner for another time.  Do small things well and add on instead of doing many things poorly.
Matthew Winner was the presenter for this session and it is obvious that he has a passion for literature.  He read aloud from an advance copy of "Little Tree" by Loren Long.  I see this being a book coming to a professional development near you very soon.

And then Matthew ended the day, as the keynote, with a presentation entitled, "What Makes a Hero?" and challenged all of us to think about the legacy we are leaving.  I was ready (almost) to head back to school right that day and get started.